10 books you should read in December, including Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit And Glamor Of An Icon

Also check out Outside Looking In: The Seriously Funny Life And Work Of George Carlin and A Dangerous Business from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jane Smiley

Aux Features Elizabeth Taylor
10 books you should read in December, including Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit And Glamor Of An Icon
Clockwork from bottom left: No One Left To Come Looking For You (Image: Simon & Schuster); The Book of Everlasting Things (Image: Macmillan); Roses, In The Mouth Of A Lion (Image: Flatiron); Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit And Glamor Of An Icon (Image: Harper); How Far The Light Reaches (Image: Little, Brown); A Dangerous Business: A Novel (Image: Borzoi); 21-Hit Wonder: (Image: Matt Holt/BenBella); Outside Looking In: The Seriously Funny Life and Work of George Carlin (Image: Applause) Graphic: Libby McGuire

December brings a wave of new books just in time for the holiday shopping season. The A.V. Club has sorted through the best of these options to highlight 10 titles we’re most excited about, including the first authorized biography of screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, a nervy whodunit from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley, and an illuminating deep dive into the life of George Carlin, one of America’s most important comedians.

previous arrowThe Book Of Everlasting Things, Aanchal Malhotra (December 27, Macmillan) next arrow
The Book Of Everlasting Things, Aanchal Malhotra (December 27, Macmillan)
Image Macmillan

Award-winning historian Aanchal Malhotra turns her expertise on Partition (she’s penned two books on it) into moving historical fiction in her debut novel The Book Of Everlasting Things. It is 1938 in Lahore, Pakistan, and Samir, an apprentice in his Hindu family’s perfume business, smells not just with his nose but with his belly and heart. Across the city, Firdaus is an eerily talented illustrator in her Muslim father’s calligraphy shop. As the two families enter a business partnership, a star-crossed love story between Samir and Firdaus blossoms, while a broader story—one of politics, religion, and geography—unfurls across the decades. As Partition arrives and divides, it destroys far more than familiar borders.

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